The Education of Charlie Banks

• Charlie Bank s (Jesse Eisenberg) sheltered world at his Ivy League campus is shaken up when Mick (Jason Ritter), an old acquaintance with a violent past, unexpectedly shows up at his dorm room. Intrigued by Charlie s privileged lifestyle, the charismatic Mick quickly wins over Charlie s friends and his crush, Mary (Eva Amurri) as he seamlessly integrates himself into Charlie s life. Unnerved, yet

The Education of Charlie Banks, which marks the directorial debut of Limp Bizkit's front-man Fred Durst, is a riveting tale about college students learning to deal with life, love, and ultimately facing their fears. This coming-of-age drama spans from the playgrounds of Greenwich Village to the idyllic greens of Vassar College.The nervous charisma of indie leading man Jesse Eisenberg (The Squid and the Whale, Adventureland) carries The Education of Charlie Banks, a story of! doomed ambition, hopeless yearning, and lingering guilt. When teenaged Charlie Banks (Eisenberg) witnessed a handsome bully named Mick (Jason Ritter, Freddy Vs. Jason) beat up two other boys, he tells the police--but then, feeling like a rat, withdraws his testimony so that Mick gets released. A few years later, when Mick suddenly appears at Charlie’s dorm for a visit, Charlie lives in dread that his betrayal will be revealed. But as Mick successfully woos the girl Charlie’s in love with, Charlie and Mick grown enmeshed in mutual envy and reluctant admiration. The Education of Charlie Banks aspires to be a preppy version of The Great Gatsby (just to make that clear, the characters twice make references to F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic novel), peppered with philosophical allusions to Hannah Arendt and Jacques Derrida. Unfortunately, despite Charlie and Mick’s backstory, these kids just don’t have enough of a past to seem driven or haunte! d--they just flounder like any other bunch of boozing, horny c! ollege s tudents. Mick comes across as a junior-varsity Tom Ripley, more stalker than star-crossed. Still, it’s a surprisingly smooth-flowing movie from Fred Durst, the former lead singer of rap-metal band Limp Bizkit. Also featuring Eva Amurri (Saved!). --Bret Fetzer

Get to Know the Cast From The Education of Charlie Banks

Eva Amurri (Mary)

Jason Ritter (Mick)

Jesse Eisenberg (Charlie)

Stills from The Education of Charlie Banks  (Click for larger image)

Blast From the Past

• BLAST FROM THE PAST (DVD MOVIE)

Studio: New Line Home Video Release Date: 11/09/2010Coasting on the successes of Gods and Monsters and George of the Jungle, Brendan Fraser turns in yet another winning performance in this fish-out-of-water comedy in which Pleasantville meets modern-day Los Angeles, with predictably funny results. Fraser stars as Adam, who was born in the bomb shelter of his paranoid inventor dad (a less-manic-than-usual Christopher Walken), who spirited his pregnant wife (Sissy Spacek, in fine comic form) underground when he thought the Communists dropped the bomb (actually, it was a plane crash). Armed with enough supplies to last 35 years, the parents bring up Adam in Leave It to Beaver style with nary any exposure to the outside world. When the supplies run out, and dad suffers a heart attack, Fraser goes up to modern-day L.A. for some shopping and lon! g-awaited culture shock. More of a cute premise with lots of clever ideas attached than a fully fleshed out story, Blast from the Past is also supposed to be part romantic comedy, as the hunky Adam hooks up with his jaded Eve (Alicia Silverstone) and tries to convince her to marry him and go underground. The sparks don't fly, though, because Silverstone is saddled with the triple whammy of being miscast, playing an underwritten character, and suffering a very bad hairdo. Fraser, however, carries the film lightly and easily on his broad, goofy shoulders, mixing Adam's gee-whiz innocence with genuine emotion and curiosity; only Fraser could pull off Adam's first glimpse of a sunrise or the ocean with both humor and pathos. Also winning is Dave Foley as Silverstone's gay best friend, who manages to make the most innocuous statements sound like comic gems. --Mark Englehart